Will You Recommend Me?
It’s nothing new to ask past clients for testimonials for marketing purposes. After all, businesses have been doing this for decades. Mickey Rooney is pitching life insurance. Valerie Bertinelli is telling you how much weight she’s lost on the Jenny Craig diet. While others celebrities are pitching other “great” products and services that you should buy.
A valid testimonial has merit. The person giving the testimonial is a consumer of the product or service. Recently, I’m getting requests from Facebook entertainers that I don’t know, have never seen, or even worked with asking for testimonial.
These entertainers are using social media to solicit anybody on their friends list to give them a recommendation. Now, if you are like me you’re just hitting the delete button. I figure, if I’m going to give a recommendation or a testimonial I should at least know who you are and have seen you work. But, that doesn’t seem to matter to some people. They are looking for anybody to say something about them. Now, I don’t know if it is low esteem or need to have an ego boost, but their requests are silly.
If you’re looking to get a testimonial from a client, contact the client directly. Ask them for a testimonial. Most are more than happy to help you. After all, getting a testimonial from another entertainer is a nice ego boost, however corporate clients wants is to hear what other corporate clients have said. They don’t care about an award winning entertainer who thinks you’re creative. Potential clients want real testimonies from clients who have events similar to theirs. So don’t waste your time asking me for a testimonial, seek out your past clients who can give a real testimonial that will help you get that next entertainment job.
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Dale,
I agree with you regarding recommendations. In my experience a recommendation would only come from someone who knew your work and personality very well. They would need to have seen your professional expertise and be able to give a first hand account of your skills and abilities. That may sound like the old fashioned way, but to me it’s the only way when it comes to handing out recommendations.
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